Last night I was excited, and surprised, to see my favorite title to a thread on Reddit: “Competitive Ruling”. This thread came up not once, but twice. Riot laid down some serious punishment to two LCS teams, Renegades and Team Impulse.
Like I said, I was excited to see these threads, but one i got deep into them, the punishments were insane. Renegades owners were banned, and forced to sell their team. And Team Impulse was also forced to sell their LCS spot.
We wont get into the allegations, because Riot gave no evidence to prove they were true (at least in the case of Renegades), and I have no evidence whether or not they weren’t true either. But the punishments seem rather extreme. It’s one thing to force ownership to sell their teams, it’s another to mandate this to happen within 10 days. This short amount of time is its own punishment, as it will surely heavily lower the price of the potential sale. We’re in a buyers market for LCS teams right now. (So if anyone wants to pool their money together and buy one with me, I’ve got like 100 bucks.)
The problem with these rulings, is that there’s no third party investigations, and no appeal process. It’s basically just the word of a game developer, against the word of an alleged “wrong doer”. I can understand these rulings being blind justice when someone is cheating or affecting the actual game negatively. But when something this big happens, there needs to be some checks and balances, or else esports will never truly be as legitimate as traditional sports.
There’s been several posts like this before, and even though this one is probably the most tame, it all comes back to a shared TL;DR of: Riot focuses on publicizing NA too much, and should be giving equal attention to all regions.
And if this was a perfect world, they would. LoL from all regions would replace programming on ESPN2, people would work together in solo/dynamic q, and I’d actually be able to find the Baja Blast in stores this year.
The cold hard truth is all of this content is from NA producers and talent. Of course they’re going to focus on their home region.
/u/FrostyPoot brings some rationale to the conversation: “Yeah I’d like to see more content from the other regions, but it should be clear that the Riot staff in NA are going to have a much easier/cheaper time making content about NA, especially when they include film from the players (interviews and such).”
On top of all of this, it’s still likely the NA is Riot’s cash cow, providing more revenue than the other regions. This is still a business, and a company is going to do what makes them the most money.
I would love to see all regions of pro League of Legends receive equal attention. I’d love if the whole world operated on the same time schedule, so Asian LoL didn’t air live at 4AM. Unfortunately life ain’t perfect. Now someone please help me find the Baja Blast.
After this Sunday’s NALCS finals between TSM and CLG, reddits was ablaze with opinions on the Doublelift vs. Stixxay argument.
Here are the facts:
CLG parted ways with Doublelift before this split, citing it was best for team dynamic.
Less than 24 hours later, TSM signed the star ad carry.
CLG beat TSM 3-2 in the finals with Doublelifts replacement, Stixxay, out damaging his predecessor.
Now Reddit is in uproar. Saying Stixxay doesn’t deserve any credit for the victory, and how he didn’t contribute anything, save for the final team fight of the final game. (And yes apparently Reddit believes that sealing the deal for a finals victory, isn’t a big deal)
The fact of the matter is, you can frame anything anyway you want to. (Trust me, it’s how I’m able to convince people that I’m an asset to their lives.)
If TSM wins this series, you can bet that the hot topic would be how CLG was wrong for letting Doublelift go. Or, even better yet, they’d still be bashing Stixxay for not being better than who he replaced.
Yes, everyone is entititled to their opinions, but they shouldn’t let teenage fangirlisms blind them from the truth.
Twitch.tv is a streaming service, that allows content creators to play videogames while interacting with fans in real time. The platform was bought by Amazon in the summer of 2014 for just under 1 billion dollars.
Streamers who are popular enough, receive the option to partner with twitch. This allows die-hard fans the ability to subscribe to this streamer. A subscriber typically pays $5 a month (the streamer splits this 3/2 with twitch) to receive additional features, such as custom emoticons in the chat.
On top of money made from subscriptions, streamers also get ad revenue and direct donations from viewers.
This is all well and good, but it poses an interesting conundrum . The top streamers on twitch are pro players, former pro players, and content creators with strong personalities. Focusing on the pros and former pros, there becomes a dilemma.
That is: What’s going to make more money?
Sure, winning world championships is going to result in high prize pools, but is it worth the effort?
Surely you can’t practice at the highest level, while also maintaining a high twitch following and subscriber count. We’ve seen this result in players retiring from professional play, just to stream (and meme) full time.
It’s a very different situation from normal sports. You’d never see LeBron James or Kevin Durant retiring from basketball, just to play at the park for people to pay and watch.
Twitch is a platform that is great for both sides. As it allows for the viewer to either be entertained or learn a trick or two, and it allows the streamer to make some big bucks at the same time.
Pro athletes have had to deal with negativity, since the beginning of their sports. Under constant criticism from the media, it’s no surprise that they can get a little agitated by reporters on occasion.
It’s no different in eSports. However, the criticism isn’t coming from just reported, it’s coming from a whole community. Players are constantly harped on for poor performances on reddit and twitter, and there’s nothing they can do about it. Sure they can avert there eyes, but that’s almost impossible. If you play videogames, your almost guaranteed to frequent reddit. And it’s even harder to ignore your twitter mentions.
You could make the argument that they shouldn’t let it get to their head. Sure athletes don’t let it bother them, but then again they don’t see the thousands upon thousands of angry fans relentlessly abusing them on social media. They only hear it from a select few in the media. Sure they have twitters, but are they really looking through millions of comments from followers?
The point is eSport players are under constant scrutiny. And most of these guys (and gals) are younger than 25, and may not have the maturity to handle the criticism. It’s a shame that one of the fastest growing industries in the world, is marred by online internet trolls. To the players that don’t let things like this get to their head, I salute you.
The Reddit world has been abuzz these past couple of days, with allegations that Riot Games is showing bias against one of their LCS teams, Counter Logic Gaming.
For one thing, many feel the pre-match hype video for Sunday’s “game of the week,” was incredibly focused on CLG’s opponent Cloud 9. Cloud 9 and CLG are on relatively even footing in the standings, so the fact that one team was showcased more, is a bit odd.
Another odd circumstance, is after the game (CLG won) the customary post-match interview with a member of the winning team, in this case CLG’s Aphromoo, was cut short for an interview with a member of the losing team (C9’s Hai). Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with getting a fresh take from the losing team (albeit might be a little awkward). But just know that the losing team rarely gets interviewed after LCS matches.
CLG is one of the biggest and most historic teams in professional League of Legends history, so this perceived bias may just be one really unfortunate coincidence. However, if it’s not, it’s really bad for everyone involved. If this bias is real, and proven, it’ll be an absolute PR nightmare for the company that produces the biggest video game in the world. It also hurts CLG, because of the simple fact that publicity and personality equal more sponsors. With less notoriety comes less social media buzz, and even less fans. If Riot is intentionally snubbing CLG for whatever reason, they’re hurting them from a monetary perspective, which is completely unprofessional and unacceptable.
Yesterday, Counter Logic Gaming CEO, Devin “Mylixia” Nash, announced that the team is focused on better establishing their community presence.
“When I joined Counter Logic Gaming, I promised this in my CEO announcement article: We need to connect to our roots, and interact on a deeper level with our supporters. This means better communication and a focus on bringing you closer to what’s happening at CLG,” said Nash”
The announcement featured the relaunch of the Counter Logic Gaming YouTube channel. The main channel will feature, “quality stories about the organization and each team as a whole. On this will also be staff features and narratives about our culture and what CLG is doing,” according to Nash.
CLG League of Legends and CLG Counter Strike,are also launching YouTube channels. These channels will focus on the players, and allow the user to get a look at what it takes to be a professional.
Coinciding with the launch of these YouTube channels, are the launch of Facebook pages as well. These pages will focus on being information hubs for fans, keeping them up to date with the latest CLG news.
From a fans perspective, these are some welcome announcements. It’s always fun to experience new content created by both the players, and the organization. It’s also a good way for the organization to maintain a level of transparency with the fans.
CLG will need to pump out a consistent amount of content on these platforms, in order to not disappoint the fans.
Social media in eSports, is quite similar to social media in regular sports. You’ll see players interacting with fans, players promoting their brand, and even the occasional trash talk. Much like the NFL, you’ll see the League of Legends eSports account tweet roster moves, and recaps of recent matches
The main difference between social media in sports versus social media in eSports, is the fact the rise of eSports came during/after the birth and success of social media. Where as this was not the case with traditional sports. Michael Jordan didn’t have a twitter account where he would put Magic Johnson on blast. And Reggie Jackson didn’t have an Instagram where he would highlight the fashion trends of the 70’s, much like Russel Westbrook does today.
Obviously eSports aren’t as big yet as traditonal sports, no one argues that. It is a fact though that they are on the rise. And the benefit highly from social media platforms. If someone tweets a link to a match, you can just click it and you’re watching. This isn’t the case with with football or basketball (of course you can click a link and watch an illegal stream of one of those sports, but that’s frowned upon). The fact of the matter is, eSports and social media go hand in hand. Without a platform like reddit, eSports may have not even have gotten off the ground.
Well so far in 2016 there’s been two blogs, and now two basketball references! NRG come to be when Team Coast’s LCS spot was bought by the Sacramento Kings.
Furthermore, I’m a big fan of plays on words, and if you spell NRG out instead of pronouncing it Ehnerguh, it sounds like energy! I bet you didn’t pick up on that!
This team has the potential to be top 3, or they could totally crash and burn. Impact was great on Impulse last year, and Altec had the potential to be NA’s number one ADC if Gravity didn’t plummet last split.
I think Moon definitely has potential to be a top tier jungler, but we’ll see how his dominance of the challenger series transitions into playing on stage.
As far as mid laner GBM goes, I am a big fan of people who wear bow ties, especially when it’s on stage during a competitive LoL match. What? Bow ties have absolutely nothing to do with someones skill? That’s ludicrous! On a serious note, GBM was once a great Korean mid laner, but has since been on the decline. However, you don’t need to be a great Korean mid laner to be a good NA mid laner, so he’ll likely have success this split.
6. LA Renegades
Woah! There’s a girl on this team! This team is like the Bad News Bears, once the really good dude with the motorcycle (Freeze) joins the team. This metaphor might not make any sense, because of the fact they qualified for LCS before Freeze joined, but just picture Montecristo in Billy Bob Thornton’s role and its absolutely hilarious.
Freeze was one of, if not the best ADC in Europe last year. He definitely was at least top 3. And if you add the fact he did all this while playing for last place team Copenhagen Wolves, and he could be the best player who’s ever set foot on the rift.
The two established veterans on this team, Alex Ich and Crumbzz were both top players on two storied franchises in their careers. M5 may have blew Dignitas out of the water, but still if you were looking to build a team around two knowledgeable pros, these two were a good choice.
As far as the rest of the team goes, Remilia has proven she can make plays in the Challenger Series, and with an ADC like Freeze, she’ll just continue to improve. RF might be a little shaky at first, but this kid uses his elo to try and get chicks, so he’s already a legend in my book.
I’m definitely rooting for them, and this could be huge crowd favorite.
7. Echo Fox
Rick Fox bought a League of Legends team, and he put his name in the team name! He also got Froggen!
Froggen showed at all-stars that he is definitely still a force to be reckoned with. And I’d like to remind you all that KEITHMCBRIEF has a higher winning percentage on Liquid than Piglet did/does.
But this team is basically Rick Fox when played basketball. It might be good, but there’s just too many Lakers/teams better than him/this team, for Echo Fox to go anywhere.
Hard was good on C9T, but C9T never went anywhere and always collapsed when it came to qualifying for the LCS.
Kfo has never been on a pro team before, and is just a Korean Soloq star. That being said the last Korean Soloq star that signed to an NA team was Rush, and he become league MVP. Furthermore, I know for a fact kfo isn’t Keane, but for some reason I always think kfo is Keane. I don’t know man, that’s going to bother me.
Lastly, why is Baby on this team when Xpecial was available?
8. Team Liquid
Yeah, this team is going to finish 4th by some miracle, solely because it’s their destiny.
I don’t know if I like the idea of a ten man roster. On one hand, it’s good to keep your starters on their toes to keep them playing at their best. On the other hand, it could absolutely kill their confidence. However, if this leads to Piglet being benched for Fabbbyyy, it’ll all be worth it. Just for the analysis/reddit reactions of Fabbbyyy replacing a world champion.
I do think FeniX and Piglet are good, but to me Piglet just has too many negative qualities that outweigh the good. He has the potential to hard carry, or tilt this team into the bottom three.
I’m glad they’re giving Lourlo a chance, by picking him up to be their starting top laner. I just don’t know how well he is going to do. But you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take, and I hope Lourlo dunks his.
Maybe Smoothie will be good? Maybe IWDominate isn’t on the decline? Who knows. I just think this whole thing is way too convoluted.
But I do want Fabbbyyy.
9. Dignitas
Dignitas looked good in their first game at IEM Cologne. Then they proceeded to ruin that, and throw the whole series at Baron. But what was anyone expecting, it is Dignitas.
I don’t think this team is good! Apollo lucked out when he was on TIP, because he didn’t have to play AD carry. He was playing “AD Rush, XwX, or Impact will carry, no one pay attention to me please.” Which there’s nothing wrong with that! But on this dig team, they’re going to need something out of him. And I don’t think he’s going to deliver.
Shiphtur has his moments, sure, but there’s just so many better mid laners than him this split.
Kirei has the most promise on this team, but the addition of him and SmittyJ don’t have the same wow factor as many of the other newcomers to NA.
KiWiKiD is fun, I guess.
10. Team Impact
This team is like the Bad News Bears before the cool kid with the motorcycle joins the team. Bad.
leagueofwords 